Mehlick, a retired judge, took the temporary post in August after former top attorney Mark Cullen resigned amid controversy over the destruction of police internal affairs files that were the subject of an open-records request. City records show Cullen gave the final legal OK to proceed with the destruction after then-Police Chief Robert Williams signed an agreement with the police union that allowed the records to be destroyed a year early.

The destruction of those records prompted a lawsuit from Calvin Christian III, who had requested them under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Pending city council approval, the city has agreed to a settlement that would pay Christian and his attorneys more than $100,000.

An ordinance approving the settlement was up for emergency passage at Tuesday night’s city council meeting, but aldermen decided to delay the vote for two weeks.

Houston said in an interview Wednesday that Mehlick submitted his resignation before Tuesday’s meeting. He chose Dec. 14 as the effective date because he hoped the settlement would be approved Tuesday night, the mayor said.

“One of the things he had as a goal when he came here was to resolve the lawsuit,” the mayor said.

Despite Mehlick’s decision to step down before the final vote, now scheduled for Dec. 17, Houston said he expects the council to approve the settlement.

“It is in the best interest of the city of Springfield to do this,” he said.

Still searching

Houston said Mehlick did “an excellent job” and “raised the morale of the staff” during his brief tenure. The settlement wouldn’t have been reached without Mehlick’s efforts, he added.

“I personally would have been very happy to have him remain in that position,” Houston said. “At this point in his life, that wasn’t something he was looking to do.”

As for Mehlick’s replacement, Houston said he is still searching for someone to fill the position on a permanent basis. It’s yet to be determined if there will be another acting corporation counsel in the meantime, he said.

Mehlick had clashed with some members of the city council in recent weeks, particularly Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin.

McMenamin said at last week’s committee of the whole meeting that he felt he was “getting the runaround from our city attorney.”

One example McMenamin cited was his effort to introduce an ordinance authorizing the release of minutes from a closed-door executive session during which the council was told about Houston’s since-abandoned plan to seek proposals for private management of city-owned Oak Ridge Cemetery. McMenamin said Mehlick drafted the ordinance but didn’t sign off on its “legal sufficiency” in time for it to be introduced for a Nov. 19 first reading.

Page 2 of 2 - Mehlick said at the time that he hadn’t had a chance to review the ordinance because he was busy working on the document-destruction settlement.

“I am sorry that I didn’t put your matter ahead of other pending, more important legal matters for the city, but I’ve gotten to it since then,” he said at the Nov. 26 meeting.

Mehlick signed off on the legal sufficiency of the ordinance that day.

‘Highest regard’

Despite the past conflicts, McMenamin was complimentary following Wednesday’s announcement.

“John Mehlick worked to move the city through difficult legal issues and had positive goals,” he said.

Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman had expressed concerns that Mehlick and Jon Gray Noll, an outside attorney representing the city in the Christian lawsuit, weren’t making depositions and other records in the case easily available to aldermen.

The attorneys told the city council Tuesday just before a vote to go into closed session that they believed Cahnman had a conflict of interest and shouldn’t participate in the discussion. Cahnman is representing Christian in a traffic case that predates the lawsuit, but he said he didn’t believe there was a conflict.

Following the resignation announcement, Cahnman also praised Mehlick.

“I have known Judge John Mehlick professionally for many years and have nothing but the highest regard for him,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “He is an excellent lawyer and was a good and fair judge. I thank him for his service to the city and wish him well.”

A phone message left for Mehlick at his home Wednesday afternoon was not returned.

Mehlick became an associate judge in 1989 and served 21 years on the bench before retiring in 2010 as head of the Sangamon County Circuit Court’s traffic and misdemeanor division.

In addition to his time on the bench, Mehlick served as an assistant state’s attorney, assistant U.S. attorney and worked in private practice.